Reclaiming capacity from the margins: adjusted sovereignty and strategic agency in postcolonial Martinique

This article examines how non-sovereign, postcolonial territories can reclaim the agency through locally situated practices of governance. Using Martinique as an emblematic case, the study develops the concept of adjusted territorial sovereignty to describe how civic and hybrid actors engage in strategic action within the constraints of centralised legal frameworks and geopolitical dependencies. Drawing on two in-depth case studies – a digital innovation hub (MADIHUB) and an agroecological cooperative (Agri’Cité) – the article demonstrates how sovereignty can be redefined as a performative, relational and cap­acitary practice enacted from below. It contributes to contemporary debates on territorial politics, postcolonial governance, and ­non-sovereign statehood, offering a comparative heuristic for analysing strategic agencies in dependent regions. By reframing sovereignty as a relational and performative process, the article challenges binary views of dependence versus independence and situates non-sovereign territories as laboratories of political innovation. The findings contribute to debates on postcolonial governance, social economy, and subnational diplomacy, while offering insights into the strategic and symbolic conditions under which territorial agency can emerge. Beyond the specific case of Martinique, the concept of adjusted sovereignty provides a comparative heuristic for analysing how dependent regions transform constraints into opportunities for differentiated autonomy in the twenty-first century.